Quick and accurate diagnosis is crucial to many practices of medicine. In order for a physician (or other medical person) to quickly and accurately diagnose a condition, he must know not only all of the possible conditions or diseases associated with a particular finding or set of findings, but also which findings to look for in the patient.
Given a particular presentation such as chest pain, blurred vision, or cardiac arrhythmia, the physician needs to know:
1) which conditions and/or diseases to consider (i.e., what are the disease possibilities);
2) which manifestations or findings to look for; and
3) the significance of the presence or absence of each finding in ruling in or ruling out each condition and/or disease possibility.
Traditionally, this information has been obtained from experience or medical journals. While experience and the teachings of medical journals are invaluable, it is unrealistic to expect that a physician will be aware of every possibility associated with a set of findings, or that he will be aware of every finding that he should consider. It is also unrealistic to expect that a physician will have instant recall of everything that he has learned. Reliance upon textbooks and journals requires slow and methodical analysis, so they alone are not suitable for many practices of medicine.
One example of information that is useful for diagnosing a particular condition and/or disease is the frequency with which a particular finding occurs in patients suffering from a particular condition and/or disease under consideration. Another example of useful information is the specificity, or "evoking strength" of the finding. The specificity answers the question: "Given a patient with this finding, how strongly should I (the physician) consider this diagnosis to be its explanation?"
In other words, while the frequency is an estimate of how often patients with the condition and/or disease exhibit the finding, the specificity is indicative of the frequency with which the finding manifests itself in patients not having the disease. Both the frequency and specificity of findings are extremely important, if not essential, to accurate diagnosis, but these are examples of information that no physician can always be expected to have at his fingertips.
The prior art generally contemplates the use of computer programs that apply symbolic reasoning, or "artificial intelligence", to assist the physician in making diagnoses in the field of general internal medicine. For example, see Randolph A. Miller, et al., Internists: I, An Experimental Computer-Based Diagnostic Consultant For General Internal Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 307, Number 8, pp. 468-475 (August 1982). See also Michael B. First, et al., QUICK (QUick) Index to Caduceus Knowledge; Using The Internists--I/Caduceus Knowledge Base As An Electronic Textbook of Medicine, Computers and Biomedical Research, Vol. 18, pp. 137-165 (1985). And also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,290,114 (Sinay) and 4,733,354 (Potter, et al.). However, these systems are generally cumbersome to use and do not rapidly and efficiently convey diagnostic information to the physician or other medical personnel. They therefore do not answer the need for a system that provides rapid and accurate diagnostic information.
It is unlikely that any machine, including a programmed computer, will ever replace the skill and intuition of a human physician in rendering a medical diagnosis. However, available resources should be employed to the maximum extent possible to aid physician in rendering quick and accurate diagnoses. These resources should be employed in such a way that they complement, rather than replace, the physician in diagnosing a patient's condition
Thus, an object of the present invention to is provide a computer aided method of presenting diagnostic information to a physician or other medical personnel in such a manner that conditions and/or diseases can be quickly and accurately diagnosed.
A further object of the invention is to provide a computer aided, bedside diagnostic assistance system.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a computer aided study program for use by a physician or other medical personnel in studying a wide range of diseases and afflictions.